Migration and Diversity in Asian Contexts

edited by Lai Ah Eng, Francis Leo Collins and Brenda Yeoh Saw Ai

Publication Year: 2012

This volume makes an important and unique contribution to scholarly understandings of migration and diversity through its focus on Asian contexts. Current scholarship and literature on processes of migration and the consequences of diversity is heavily concentrated on Western contexts and their concerns with "multiculturalism", "integration", "rights and responsibilities", "social cohesion", "social inclusion", and "cosmopolitanism". In contrast, there has been relatively little attention given to migration and growing diversity in Asian contexts which are constituted by highly distinct and varied histories, cultures, geographies, and political economies. This book fills this significant gap in the literature on migration studies with a concentrated focus on communities, cities and countries in the Asian region that are experiencing increased levels of population mobility and subsequent diversity. Not only does it offer analyses of the policies and processes of migration, it also addresses the outcomes and implications of migration and diversity -- these include a focus on multiculturalism and citizenship in the Asian region, the emerging complex forms of governance in response to increased diversity, discussions of different settlement experiences, and the practices of everyday life and encounters in increasingly diverse locales.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

List of Contributors

Maruja M.B. Asis is Director of Research and Publications at the Scalabrini
Migration Center. She is a sociologist who has been working on migration
issues in Asia. Her current research deals with the impact of government
regulations on the protection of Filipino domestic workers, employment
and migration of the Filipino youth, ...

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Approaching Migration and Diversity in Asian Contexts

Migration and the human diversity that necessarily accompanies it present
multifarious challenges and opportunities within the varied social and
cultural landscapes of Asia. The contributions in this volume set out to
interrogate some of these challenges and opportunities and to discuss
emergent governance regimes, identities and practices ...

Part I: Migration, Multiculturalism and Governance in Asia

Most of the discussion on the nexus between migration and citizenship
has focused on trends and practices in Western countries. This chapter
will examine some tendencies in selected Asian countries which have
been affected by migration. This focus aims to contribute to the discussion
on citizenship as Asia presents some specific realities. ...

2. Multicultural Coexistence Policies of Local Governments in the Tokyo Metropolis: A Comparative Examination of Social Integration in Response to Growing Ethnic Diversity

Since the early 1980s, Japan has used foreign workers to compensate for
labour shortages in blue collar industries and other forms of employment
deemed dirty, dangerous, and difficult (the 3Ds). Economic structural
dependence on foreign workers has contributed to Japan’s foreign resident
population increasing to 2,186,121 in 2009, ...

3. The Place of Migrant Workers in Singapore: Between State Multiracialism and Everyday (Un)Cosmopolitanisms

Increasing flows of transnational migration have fuelled a new spatial
order of interconnectivities among nations and cities, leading to a host of
both anticipated and unanticipated human encounters between locals and
migrants. These encounters and the subsequent possibilities for creative
synergies, destructive tensions ...

4. Selective State Response and Ethnic Minority Incorporation: The South Korean Case

How do states manage ethnocultural diversity? States have always
been eager to control their borders. However, only recently has the
importance of states in facilitating or constraining immigrant incorporation
drawn academic attention (see Bloemraad 2006; Castles 1995; Freeman
2004; Hagan 2006; James 2005; Jayasuriya 1996; ...

5. The Tug of War over Multiculturalism: Contestation between Governing and Empowering Immigrants in Taiwan

Shortly after the world was shocked by the attacks in Norway on 22 July
2011, the Taiwanese public was upset to learn that the self-confessed
perpetrator and right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, made and
posted a video on the Internet before going on his killing spree, in which
he expresses his admiration for Taiwan, ...

Part II: Identities

6. Mixed-Ethnic Children Raised by Single Thai Mothers in Japan: A Choice of Ethnic Identity

This chapter investigates whether existing studies of the identity of mixedethnic
children are adaptable to studies of such children in Japan, a country
which was formerly predominantly mono-ethnic1 where the mainstream
ethnic group is non-white. While copious literature can be found concerning
the identity of mixed-ethnic children, ...

7. Being Indian In Post-Colonial Metro Manila: Identities, Boundaries and the Media

Contrary to the assumption that members of the Indian diaspora
identify with a pan-Indian identity, current studies demonstrate that
they have complex and plural identifications, constructed in gendered
(Radhakrishnan 2008; Warikoo 2005), classed (Bhattacharya 2008), ethnic
(Lock and Detaramani 2006) and “racialized” (Bhatia 2008) terms. ...

Part III: Practices

8. The Kopitiam in Singapore: An Evolving Story about Migration and Cultural Diversity

Hundreds of kopitiam (coffee shop in Chinese dialects) are found throughout
Singapore, with the majority located in the HDB (Housing and Development
Board) public housing estates in which 83 per cent of Singapore’s population
live. Often viewed as a quintessential feature of Singapore public culture
and everyday life, ...

Considering its population size of 10 million, Seoul has a relatively low
level of cultural and ethnic diversity not only in numerical terms (Choe
2003, p. 24) but also in terms of dominant ideas of ethnic unity, influenced
at least in part by the historical experience of colonialism. ...

10. Competition and Constructedness: Sports, Migration and Diversity in Singapore

Sports migration is fast becoming a significant dimension of transnational
studies. Up to about the latter part of the 1990s, the most significant sports
migration moves were probably confined to soccer (one of the most popular
and monied sports in the world), and even these were largely intracontinental
(and occasionally trans-Atlantic) movements into the English
Premier League and the Serie A. ...

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